Category Archives: safety

There have been 4 bicyclists killed in Tempe traffic collisions on city streets (excludes limited-access highways) over the past 5 years [five year period 2010-2014); at the same time dozens of motorists and 14 pedestrians have been killed.

[UPDATE: There were zero bicyclist fatalities in 2009, and 2015; there was one in 2016, and one in 2017 (as of December). I.e. there have been a total of 6 bicyclist traffic fatalities in the past 9 years]

Scope of the Problem

For the figures in this report, a 5-year time period, 2010-2014 was selected (the most recent available at the time; 2015 has since become available). Many additional crashes occur (14,000!) occur in Tempe on limited access highways; these crashes are not included.

[as of 2/26/2018 no charges ]
Holy sh!t, another one, I mean another jogger in Ahwatukee… this is a small place. Freak “accident”? Two freak “accidents”?;

11/2/2017 ~ 4AM . Pedestrian / jogger killed on sidewalk near Lakewood Parkway and Amberwood Drive this is a collector road in a residential neighborhood. Police suspect driver was impaired, she was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Witnesses reported that the driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Shannon Scott, was driving on the sidewalk when Hilts was struck”

It’s been noted that the number of reported Bike-MV crashes reported by police in Arizona have seen a mysterious sharp decrease; even as the number of MV crashes in general has risen. In round numbers through the 2009-2016 period, Bike-MV crashes have fallen by about a third, while crashes overall have increased by 20%. This time period covers the economic downturn following the Financial Crisis of 2008 and subsequent recovery. That trend has been used to explain the MV crash rate; but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Bike-MV rates; which would logically rise with more traffic and more (MV) traffic crashes.

Fewer crashes would be a good thing of course, but it feel like there’s something else going here. Also, the number of fatalities, while statistically small, remained relatively flat but above their longer-term trend of 24 (rolling 10 yr average 2007-2016; refer to internal spreadsheet \crashReports\asdm\AZstats.xls)

A driver driving the wrong way on the freeway killed all four occupants of the other vehicle. Police have not revealed why they think driver was driving the wrong way, however, they did note that this year

“…DPS arrested 52 people suspected of driving the wrong way… Ultimately, each of the 52 drivers arrested was found to be impaired”.